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The  Shields  of  the  Earth 
Belong  Unto  God 


JOHN  KELMAN 
D.D. 


S50  /  V- 

AUG    28  1979 

The  Shields  of  the  Earth 
Belong  unto  God 


A  SERMON 

Delivered  in  the 

Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church 

New  York  City 

Sunday,  February  22,  1920 


By  the  Pastor,  the 

REV.  JOHN  KELMAN 

D.D. 


Printed  by  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church 


Copyright  1920 
John  Kehnan,  D.D. 


The  Shields  of  the  Earth 
Belong  unto  God 

By  Rev.  John  Kelman,  D.D. 


The  Shields  of  the  Earth  Belong  unto  Co^— Psalm  47  :  9 


THE  date  of  the  writing  of  this  psahii  is  un- 
certain, and  indeed  the  internal  evidence  might 
hold  equally  well  of  practically  any  time  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  In  the  psalm  we  see  the  chosen 
people  looking  exultantly  round  the  nations  and 
claiming  the  earth  for  Jehovah.  To  those  who  know 
anything  of  the  history  or  even  the  geography  of 
Palestine  there  is  something  almost  amusing  in  this 
challenge  of  so  small  a  nation  to  the  wide  world 
round  it.  The  wandering  tribes  of  Israel  had  no 
very  creditable  national  history  behind  them  when 
compared  with  the  great  swelling  words  in  which 
other  nations  boasted  of  their  past.  Perched  at  last 
upon  the  narrow  shelf  of  rock  between  the  River 
Jordan  and  the  sea,  surrounded  by  the  wilderness 
with  its  many  miles  of  barren  sand  and  clay,  and  cut 
off  by  it  from  the  mighty  Kingdom  of  Egypt  on  the 
south  and  the  vast  realms  of  Nineveh  or  Babylon  on 
the  east,  it  is  difficult  to  suppress  a  smile  as  we  see 
this  little  people  from  its  rocky  platform  sending  out 
its  challenge  across  the  desert  which  it  never  roamed, 
and  the  sea  on  whose  waters  it  never  ventured. 
Nou)  therefore  kings  be  wise,  says  Israel,  and  she 
takes  herself  quite  seriously  when  she  says  it. 

The  situation,  however,  is  saved  from  absurdity 
by  one   great   conviction.     Israel   might   indeed   be 


small  among  the  nations  and  from  every  secular 
point  of  view  might  count  for  little,  yet  Israel  had  a 
God  Who  counted  for  everything.  She  was  a  small 
nation  with  a  great  God.  It  was  in  the  name  of  her 
God  that  she  displayed  her  banners,  and  when  she 
rang  out  her  challenge  it  was  in  His  name,  not  in  her 
own.  No  nation  ever  felt  itself  more  defenseless 
than  Israel,  or  more  pathetically  expressed  its  small- 
ness,  weakness,  and  homelessness.  Beset  with  visible 
dangers  from  the  mighty  powers  on  either  side  of 
her,  she  has  been  well  described  as  a  lamb  between 
two  fighting  bulls.  To  this  day  the  memorial  slabs 
cut  in  the  living  rock  at  the  Dog  River  tell  the  story 
of  countless  invasions  and  incursions  in  which  the 
great  eastern  empire  and  the  Egyptian  kingdom 
passed  through  the  land  of  Palestine,  using  it  as  a 
stepping-stone  for  conquest.  Besides  these  visible 
human  enemies  there  was  for  Israel  the  whole  world 
of  terror  both  in  the  desert  and  in  the  sea,  for  these 
were  the  abodes  of  ghastly  beings  that  could  not  be 
fought  with  material  weapons,  spirits  of  malign  in- 
tent, about  whom  it  was  not  well  to  speak  nor  safe 
to  hear. 

It  is  in  connection  with  this  that  we  see  the  force 
of  the  metaphor  of  the  shield.  Many  centuries  be- 
fore this,  after  his  long  and  homeless  wandering, 
Abraham  had  felt  the  need  of  it  and  had  given  us  our 
first  example  of  it  in  the  Bible.  When  that  lonely 
and  childless  wanderer,  about  whose  spirit  the 
shadows  and  the  dangers  of  life  were  gathering, 
found  God  in  his  vision,  the  words  which  described 
the  Lord  to  Abraham  were,  /  am  thy  shield  and  thy 
exceeding  great  reward.  In  the  literature  of  a  far 
later  date  we  find  thanks   given  to  the   shield   of 


Abraham.*  In  the  psahns  written  between  these  two 
we  see  how  Israel  nestled  in  the  great  metaphor. 
Down  to  the  details  of  village  life  she  stayed  herself 
upon  this  assurance,  Except  the  Lord  keep  the  city 
the  watchman  watcheth  hut  in  vain.  It  is  very  beauti- 
ful and  touching  to  think  of  each  little  hamlet  putting 
out  its  lights  and  going  to  sleep  upon  the  serene 
assurance  that  the  eternal  God  would  act  as  watch- 
man in  her  narrow  streets. 

It  is  a  great  thought,  this,  that  the  heaven  is  the 
shield  of  the  earth.  For  the  Hebrew,  conscious  of 
his  nomad  ancestry,  the  blue  sky  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  rather  as  a  thin  and  fine-spun  texture  of 
blue,  like  silk,  while  the  Greek  regarded  the  convex 
dome  of  sky  as  a  metal  shield  held  over  the  earth. 
The  relations  between  heaven  and  earth  have  been 
so  variously  conceived  by  different  nations  that  we 
may  partly  arrive  at  some  idea  of  the  national  morals 
and  thought  by  recalling  these.  We  are  familiar  with 
the  marriage  between  heaven  and  earth,  and  with  the 
warfare  between  them.  Heaven  is  often  earth's 
dream  and  still  more  frequently  earth's  menace.  It 
says  much  for  any  nation  that  it  has  attained  to  such 
sane  calmness  and  confidence  of  faith  as  to  call  that 
blue  sky,  with  its  sunshine  and  its  stars,  the  shield 
and  hiding-place  provided  for  it  by  the  heavens. 
Thus  we  have  in  the  very  ancient  literature  of  the 
farthest  East,  a  hymn  in  which  a  people  praying  to 
its  god,  speaks  as  one  who  "rests  in  the  sheen  and 
shelter  of  Thy  wings."  This  is  by  far  the  tenderest 
and  best  of  all  the  conceptions  of  the  relations  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth.  In  it  we  see  heaven  brood- 
ing like  a  mother  bird  over  the  earth,  a  beautiful  and 
comforting  thought  for  trying  days.    It  leads  us  on  to 

*Sirach  51:12.  5 


Jesus  Christ,  Who  took  it  up  and  repeated  it  in  His 
immortal  words,  How  often  would  I  have  gathered 
thee  as  a  hen  doth  gather  her  brood  under  her  zuings. 
Here  we  find  the  fulfillment  of  the  ancient  psalm, 
Behold,  O  God,  our  shield,  and  look  upon  the  face  of 
Thine  anointed.  Thus  in  Christ  the  conception  as 
shield  and  protector  comes  to  its  perfection.  He  has 
for  His  special  province  the  defense  of  man.  But 
for  Him  man  is  indeed  defenseless.  Living  enemies 
attack  him.  Poverty,  disease,  and  death  are  forever 
threatening.  Remorse  for  his  past  chases  him  like 
a  bloodhound.  Fears  for  some  ambush  of  fate  in 
the  future  lie  in  wait  and  beset  his  way.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  men  gloried  in  the  discovery  that  God 
was  their  shield,  and  in  the  vision  of  that  shield  in 
Christ. 

In  the  text,  however,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  metaphor  of  the  shield  is  applied,  not  to  God 
Himself,  but  to  His  representatives  upon  the  earth. 
The  shields  that  God  uses  to  protect  the  earth,  in  the 
sense  of  this  metaphor,  are  men  whom  He  chooses 
for  high  station.  As  Dr.  MacLaren  has  said,  "The 
shields  are  a  figurative  expression  for  the  princes 
just  spoken  of,  who  now  at  last  recognize  to  whom 
they  belong."  Here  then  we  are  dealing  with  man's 
defense  of  man.  The  shields  are  the  princes  and 
the  high  officers  of  the  nation,  and  it  is  through  them 
that  God  chooses  to  defend  His  people  against  all 
manner  of  enemies. 

No  nation  has  had  a  larger  share  of  these  than  you 
in  America.  Today  we  are  thinking  specially  of  two 
great  men  whom  God  chose  for  this  sublime  purpose. 
We  celebrated  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  a 

6 


week  ago — a  man  beginning  life  in  humble  circum- 
stances in  Illinois,  educated  by  the  world  in  which  he 
lived  into  greatness  for  the  defense  of  the  unity  of 
his  land.  Washington,  that  English  gentleman  of 
Mount  Vernon,  looking  after  his  estates  in  serenity 
and  opulence  until  God  sent  for  him  to  defend  his 
country.  It  is  he  of  whom  we  specially  think  today. 
In  his  time- this  land  of  yours  required  a  shield.  It 
was  attacked  by  hosts  of  mercenaries  under  an  alien 
king,  while  as  yet  it  was  thinly  populated  and  beset 
with  dangers  enough  of  its  own.  This  man  put  him- 
self between  the  people  of  America  and  the  forces 
that  attacked  her.  Safe  behind  the  sheltering  per- 
sonality of  George  Washington  you  braved  the 
world  and  won.  To  such  men  a  country  owes  an 
eternal  debt.  They  are  God's  shields  that  have  de- 
fended you  in  the  hours  of  your  greatest  danger,  and 
this  is  their  chief  heritage  of  ideal  and  responsibility 
that  they  hand  down  to  you  today,  that  all  men  in 
high  position  be  as  they  were,  shields  which  defend 
the  earth. 

All  this  line  of  thinking  should  sound  familiar 
enough  to  you  in  this  particular  year  of  grace.  Three 
years  ago  I  had  the  honor  to  be  here  pleading  with 
you  to  come  into  the  Great  War,  and  who  that  saw 
America  in  those  days  will  ever  forget  them?  You 
came,  and  sent  your  sons,  and  in  France  we  saw 
them  go  in,  many  of  them  to  their  death.  Ah,  that 
American  idealism,  how  it  lit  the  lamps  of  our  weary 
troops  !  For  every  man  you  sent  across  the  sea  knew 
why  he  went.  He  went  consciously  and  deliberately 
in  defense  of  his  home,  of  the  honor  of  the  women 
whom  he  loved,  of  the  freedom  of  the  land  that  was 
his.    These  were  the  shields  that  defended  the  earth 


in  those  days,  the  young  men  of  the  princes  of  the 
provinces..  Washington  in  his  grave  must  have  seen 
them  and  been  proud  of  them  as  they  marched  past 
to  war.  As  they  died  one  by  one  he  must  have 
saluted  them  as  they  came,  grave  and  experienced  and 
devoted,  across  the  barriers  of  death.  He  saluted  the 
living  too  as  they  returned  victorious  to  their  homes. 
He  remembered  the  day  when  the  Hessian  mer- 
cenaries flung  themselves  in  vain  upon  the  living 
shield  he  had  set  up  for  America.  He  remembered 
the  generations  of  young  Americans  that  have  de- 
fended this  land.  Ah,  they  took  themselves  seriously, 
those  boys  of  yours  who  went  to  war.  It  was  in  the 
high  light  of  God's  defense  which  He  had  entrusted 
to  them  the  sons  of  men,  that  they  volunteered  and 
set  forth. 

Well,  all  that  is  over,  and  God  grant  the  sword 
may  stay  forever  in  its  scabbard.  Yet  we  live  still 
in  dangerous  and  ominous  times,  and  we  know  not 
what  grim  necessities  may  yet  arise.  Of  this  only  I 
am  very  sure,  that  should  the  land  and  its  liberties 
again  need  defending,  they  will  not  be  wanting,  those 
young  and  splendid  shields  of  God.  George  Wash- 
ington shall  not  have  to  blush  for  the  heirs  of  his 
inheritance.  You  have  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  an 
opulent  and  wonderful  national  life.  You  have 
grown  rich,  you  have  had  many  pleasures,  you  have 
attained  to  glory  and  prestige.  There  never  will  be 
a  race  of  young  Americans  who  will  be  content  to 
enjoy  these  blessings  at  the  price  of  your  blood  and 
toil,  or  that  of  those  who  went  before  you.  We  all 
know  that  when  the  call  comes  they  will  be  ready 
again  to  defend  the  blessings  that  their  fathers  have 
gained  for  them. 

8 


But  all  this  puts  life  in  a  very  high  light,  and  makes 
the  soldier's  calling  a  sacred  and  sacramental  thing. 
If  indeed  the  shields  that  defend  the  earth  are  God's, 
then  you  are  God's  when  you  make  yourself  the 
living  shield  of  national  defense  for  your  land  in 
any  danger.  It  is  an  ancient  thought  and  it  has  been 
a  strengthening  one.  Cromwell  at  the  storming  of 
Bristol  wrote  in  one  of  his  letters,  "Those  gallant 
men  of  whose  valor  so  much  mention  has  been  made 
— their  humble  suit  to  you  and  all  that  have  an  in- 
terest in  this  blessing  is  that  in  the  remembrance  of 
God's  praises  they  be  forgotten.  It's  their  joy  that 
they  are  instruments  of  God's  glory  and  their  coun- 
try's good.  It's  their  honor  that  God  vouchsafes  to 
use  them."  Such  interpretation  does  indeed  put  mili- 
tary service  in  high  light,  showing  to  those  of  you 
who  have  fought  or  who  may  yet  fight,  how  God  has 
set  you  as  a  shield  in  the  defense  of  your  land.  War 
is  either  this  or  it  is  wholesale  crime.  Either  it  is 
militarism  or  it  is  reverence  and  faith.  War  as  we 
conceive  it,  and  as  God  has  set  it  before  us  as  a 
challenge,  is  not  a  matter  of  pomp  and  circumstance, 
not  a  glory  of  masculine  strength,  not  a  mere  patriotic 
fervor.  It  is  an  engagement  in  which  you  belong  to 
God  and  are  consecrated  to  His  ends  and  purposes. 
The  battle  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  defense  of  all  that 
earth  holds  dear  is  in  His  hands.  War  is  either  this 
or  else  it  is  the  insanity  of  the  damned. 

This  conception  is  especially  true  of  all  officers, 
captains  and  leaders  in  the  army.  These  are  the  men 
whom  God  sends  to  the  soldiers  as  their  shield.  The 
history  of  all  armies  bears  witness  to  this,  and  one 
remembers  such  names  as  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
Charles  XII,  Drake  and  Nelson,  Oliver  Cromwell, 


Lincoln  and  Washington.  Millions  of  people  looked 
to  these  men  for  their  defense,  and  such  men  are 
always  needed  to  make  the  loyalty  of  the  rank  and 
file  effective.  It  is  under  their  direction  and  control 
that  armies  can  operate  or  nations  act.  Thus  in  a 
very  special  sense  such  great  men  are  God's  shields 
of  the  earth. 

When  we  transfer  all  this  to  the  sort  of  warfare 
that  is  always  being  waged  in  society,  the  same  shield 
principle  applies.  I  mean  man's  battle  for  justice 
and  cleanness  and  humanity,  and  the  long  crusade  of 
public  morals.  Peace  hath  her  victories  no  less  re- 
nowned than  zvar,  and  there  is  much  in  common  to 
the  two  kinds  of  warfare. 

It  is  especially  noticeable  that  here  too  the  princes 
are  the  defenders  and  champions  of  the  people.  In 
ancient  warfare  the  individual  leaders  counted  for 
everything,  and  great  and  commanding  personalities 
stood  out  from  the  ordinary  men  as  the  saviours  of 
all  situations.  It  may  seem  that  in  these  latter  days 
democracy  tends  to  obliterate  personality.  Gradually, 
by  the  levelling  machinery  of  education,  the  rank  and 
file  count  for  more  and  more,  while  we  cease  to  look 
with  the  same  eagerness  and  expectancy  for  domi- 
nating and  commanding  spirits.  The  incident  of  the 
franchise  itself  involves  this,  for  every  voter  is,  by 
the  exercise  of  that  office,  necessarily  constituted  a 
shield  of  the  earth. 

We  had  better  accept  that  fact  frankly  and  recog- 
nize in  every  man  one  set  for  the  defense  of  his  fel- 
lows. It  is  a  good  way  to  look  upon  ourselves  and 
our  neighbors,  this  which  regards  whatever  powers 
each  has  as  being  there  for  the  defense  of  the  na- 

10 


tion.  Yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  even  in  the  most 
extreme  democracy  personahty  remains.  No  mat- 
ter how  you  level  down  the  rank  of  outstanding  men 
by  legislation  or  level  up  the  importance  of  lowly 
men  by  education,  still  in  the  end  the  best  man  wins 
and  bears  the  heaviest  burdens.  It  has  always  been 
so,  and  in  every  imaginable  state  of  the  future  it 
always  will  remain  so.  This  text  accordingly  will 
always  have  its  application.  The  men  in  whatever 
kind  of  a  state,  who  find  themselves  in  places  of 
highest  authority  and  influence,  will  be  to  the  end  of 
time  the  shields  and  protectors  of  nations.  It  is  they 
who  give  the  watchwords  and  the  lead  which  the 
crowd  will  follow.  Thus  the  government  is  the 
shield  of  the  nation.  Magistrates,  judges  and  advo- 
cates are  its  shield  against  injustice.  Doctors  of 
medicine  are  its  shield  against  disease,  standing  be- 
tween the  living  and  the  dead.  Teachers  and  minis- 
ters are  the  shields  of  truth  and  knowledge.  Cap- 
tains of  industry  and  chiefs  of  commerce  are  there 
not  for  private  advantage,  not  to  benefit  themselves 
by  exploiting  others,  but  to  guard  the  interests  of  the 
men  whom  they  employ  and  of  the  nation  whose  trade 
or  manufacture  they  conduct.  Men  and  women  of 
wealth  are  trustees  of  great  causes,  and  are  answer- 
able for  the  effect  or  the  want  of  effect  of  their 
money  upon  these.  All  parents  and  guardians  of 
children  must  find  this  responsibility  for  defense  at 
once  their  glory  and  their  heaviest  burden ;  the  young 
are  at  the  mercy  of  the  experienced.  All  these,  and 
all  others  who  stand  in  important  places,  are  the 
shields  that  defend  the  earth  and  the  nation  in  par- 
ticular. They  are  God's  shields  and  He  claims  them 
and  their  shelter  for  His  own. 

11 


In  view  of  all  this  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  today 
the  two  great  lessons  which  come  to  us  from  the 
memory  of  George  Washington  are 

( 1 )  Washington's  appeal  to  the  rank  and  file. 

(2)  Washington's  appeal  to  the  officers. 

(1)  Washingtotis  appeal  to  the  rank  and  file  is  for 
reverence  in  public  life.  "Magistracy,"  says  Mat- 
thew Henry,  "is  God's  institution :  He  serves  His 
purpose  in  it."  Public  life  in  every  land  somehow 
or  other  tends  to  get  cheapened  in  these  modern 
times.  We  need  in  the  first  place  to  rehabilitate  the 
faith  of  our  fathers  in  the  commonwealth  and  what 
it  stands  for.  We  need  to  set  public  life  in  this  high 
light  as  God's  shield  for  the  protection  of  the  nation. 
Accordingly  the  text  is  a  plea — and  it  is  one  which 
George  Washington's  whole  life  and  character  stand 
for — a  plea  for  reverence  in  politics,  in  civic  govern- 
ment, and  in  our  professional  and  public  life.  It 
adjures  us  to  make  and  then  to  keep  our  politics  and 
our  public  life  such  that  it  is  possible  for  any  self- 
respecting  man  to  reverence  them;  and  then,  having 
made  them  such,  to  reverence  both  the  office  and  the 
man  who  holds  it. 

In  these  days  that  is  a  notable  lesson.  Reverence 
is  being  lost  in  the  general  melee.  Everybody 
would  aspire  to  rule,  and  there  is  no  deeper  vulgarity 
than  the  scramble  in  high  station  for  private  ends, 
for  place  and  power,  for  individual  ambitions  or  the 
party  interests  of  factions.  It  has  vulgarized  our 
whole  view  of  public  life.  It  has  accustomed  multi- 
tudes of  people  to  look  upon  those  above  them  only 
as  so  many  figures  to  be  pulled  down,  and  to  look 

12 


upon  themselves  when  their  foot  is  upon  the  ladder 
as  the  only  object  which  needs  attention. 

Of  those  who  act  in  such  fashions  this  text  cannot 
be  quoted.  The  shields  that  defend  the  earth  be- 
long unto  God,  but  all  place-hunters  belong  to  the 
devil.  One  of  the  few  really  fine  stories  that  are  told 
of  Frederick  the  Great  is  that  of  an  occasion  upon 
which  something  had  been  done  by  one  of  his  officers 
in  his  name,  of  which  even  he  was  ashamed.  He 
could  not  find  words  to  express  his  rage  and  indigna- 
tion, but  paced  up  and  down  the  apartment  repeating 
again  and  again  the  words,  "In  my  name !  in  my 
name !"  The  petty  aims  that  degrade  public  life  can- 
not possibly  be  followed  in  the  name  of  God.  When 
you  take  His  name  into  your  lips  with  regard  to 
these  matters,  you  at  once  feel  the  high  responsibility 
of  noble  station  and  the  cry  of  an  undefended  earth 
to  its  defender.  When  our  rulers  do  acknowledge 
God,  when  they  accept  their  high  station  and  their 
posts  of  influence  in  this  fashion,  then  the  forgotten 
ideal  comes  back.  Men  reverence  the  shields  that 
God  has  set  about  them.  We  reverence  those  who 
are  over  us  either  in  authority,  or  knowledge,  or  in 
ability,  as  men  whose  high  position  we  do  not  grudge, 
and  who  hold  their  office  by  true  divine  right.  I  am 
pleading  in  this  not  for  absolutism  but  for  a  point  of 
view.  It  is  a  plea  for  reverence,  which  is  declining 
in  these  latter  days.  It  is  a  plea  that  you  will  elect 
your  rulers  in  God's  name,  and  then  reverence  them 
in  His  name. 

(2)  Washington's  appeal  to  the  officers.  By  the 
term  officers  I  mean  those  in  responsible  positions — 
the  princes,  whether  the  prince  happens  to  be  mer- 

13 


chant  or  scholar,  teacher,  medical  man,  or  judge.  To 
all  these  Washington  would  say,  You  have  no  right 
to  your  position  except  as  servants  of  the  Lord.  The 
divine  right  of  kings  is  obsolete,  but  the  divine  right 
in  kings  is  eternal.  There  is  no  office  or  profession 
or  advantage  which  ever  finds  its  true  measure  until 
it  settles  its  relation  with  God.  In  Him  most  liter- 
ally we  live;  and  if  that  statement  be  true  of  the 
meanest  worm  that  crawls,  how  much  more  true  must 
it  be  of  those  who  rule  men  and  stand  in  high 
station. 

But  all  high  places  are  also  places  of  temptation. 
They  may  be  used  for  selfish  glory,  for  making 
money  and  for  ambition.  These  things  are  possibili- 
ties of  all  exalted  station.  They  are  the  three  things 
that  offered  themselves  to  Jesus  as  temptations  in  the 
wilderness,  and  they  will  doubtless  offer  themselves 
for  your  acceptance  also.  It  is  not  for  me  to  tell 
you  the  details  of  your  own  work  and  position,  but 
only  to  claim  you  for  God  whatever  that  work  may 
be.  It  is  to  you  that  He  has  entrusted  this  land  and 
its  fortunes.  Public  morals  are  in  your  hands,  the 
welfare  of  cities  and  of  states,  health,  freedom  and 
education.  He  expects  of  you  a  high  sense  of  honor 
and  great  and  clean  loyalties  to  the  welfare  of  your 
fellowmen.  He  counts  upon  your  purity,  your  con- 
science, your  honesty  and  your  large-heartedness. 
You  are  not  your  own;  you  are  not  your  party's; 
you  are  not  even  the  nation's ;  you  are  His.  You  are 
not  your  own,  to  live  for  yourselves  and  use  your 
high  office  for  personal  advantage.  You  do  not  be- 
long to  us,  to  cringe  to  popular  opinion  and  please 
those  you  cater  for.  The  king  who  belongs  unto 
himself,  always  goes  to  swift  ruin.     The  king  who 

14 


is  but  the  tennis-ball  of  the  nation  were  better  dead. 
The  king  shall  glory  in  the  Lord,  and  you  are  God's 
shield  of  the  earth. 

It  is  for  this  special  purpose  of  defense  that  you 
belong  to  the  Lord.  You  have  taken  His  business 
in  hand,  and  so  long  as  you  live  upon  this  principle 
and  in  this  remembrance  you  and  we  are  safe.  So 
long,  but  not  one  day  longer.  When  that  remem- 
brance fades,  and  you  continue  to  hold  high  place 
upon  any  other  principle  than  that  of  defense,  you 
become  unsafe  yourselves  and  consequently  a  public 
danger.  We  too  belong  unto  the  Lord,  and  if  you 
disavow  Him  we  have  no  right  to  obey  you.  Thus 
the  balance  of  peace  and  power  and  safety  in  the  state 
ultimately  and  essentially  depend  upon  religion.  Take 
then  your  exalted  office  very  reverently,  brethren. 
Realize  the  sacredness  of  your  high  calling.  You  are 
instruments  for  God's  ends.  You  are  His  shields  for 
the  defense  of  His  men  and  women. 

Not  only  is  it  necessary,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  high 
ends  of  public  duty,  for  those  who  hold  office  to 
remember  the  meaning  of  this  phrase.  It  is  also 
necessary  for  their  own  comfort  and  strengthening. 
The  loneliness  of  persons  in  high  authority  is  very 
great.  The  shields  themselves — those  living  shields 
that  God  sets  around  their  fellowmen — they  need  to 
be  defended.  Nothing  could  be  lonelier  and  nothing 
in  a  sense  more  pathetic  than  the  burden  on  the  con- 
sciences of  those  who  bear  responsibility  for  the  lives 
of  others.  If  there  are  those  here  who  have  felt 
this  or  are  feeling  it  I  would  entreat  them  to  fall 
back  upon  this  consolation,  You  are  the  Lord's  and 
He  is  your  shield  as  He  was  the  shield  of  Abraham. 
Not  more  truly  do  the  meanest  of  your  dependents 

15 


feel  the  shelter  of  your  presence  and  your  power  of 
defense,  than  you  yourselves  may  find  the  same 
benefits  when  you  think  of  God.  When  you  forget 
that,  and  creep  out  from  the  shelter  of  His  will  and 
of  His  love,  then  God  pity  you  in  these  latter  days. 
So  long  as  you  are  true  to  that  He  will  keep  you 
strong,  and  we  and  our  children  after  us  will  bless 
God's  name  for  you. 

"  Servants  of  God,  or  sons   .    .    . 

Then  in  such  hour  of  need 
Of  your  fainting  dispirited  race, 
Ye,  like  angels,  appear, 
Radiant  with  ardour  divine! 
Ye  fill  up  the  gaps  in  our  files. 
Strengthen  the  wavering  lines, 
Stablish,  continue  our  march, 
On,  to  the  bound  of  the  waste, 
On,  to  the  City  of  God." 


16 


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